Looking at Film from Every Angle

Feed the Queue #145

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Wesley Lovell

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Here are the results of last week’s poll.

  1. Wild Strawberries
  2. Anatomy of a Murder
  3. The 400 Blows
  4. Suddenly, Last Summer
  5. The Young Philadelphians
  6. Room at the Top

Wild Strawberries wins and goes into my queue.

Also noteworthy is that screeners are starting to come in, so I may get behind on my Feed the Queue watching. I’ll keep doing it, but you have been warned.

Here’s the deal: every week, I will be calling for suggestions of films to be added to my Netflix queue. Each person makes one suggestion and one alternate (in case I have seen one of your suggestions). The next week, when I call for new suggestions, we begin a one-week voting period to select the film to be placed immediately into my Netflix queue to be reviewed the weekend after (because I’ll already have my Netflix queue selections for the coming weekend). Then, you’ll find out what I thought in my weekly Morning After feature on Monday morning.

Sometimes a genre gets stuck in the rotation and it makes for a rough viewing schedule. Starting this week, I’m going to be asking for suggestions that fit a specific genre so each week can be a bit spicy. The genre or event listed each week will be posted at the end of this post.

To help decide what to pick, here is a list of what I’ve seen (or at least that I have personally logged).

Full List of Films I’ve Seen (updated through 3/10/11; a small number of titles may be missing still)
Here’s what you need to post today (and through next Wednesday):

  1. Below, please provide your suggestions to add to my Netflix queue as specified.
  2. Next, please rate each of the following entries in order of preference. Item 1 will be most preferred, 2 next most preferred and so forth.
  • Bells Are Ringing
  • Hiroshima, Mon Amour
  • Spartacus
  • The Sundowners
  • The Time Machine

I’m giving you a list of films from a given Oscar year that I have not yet seen. I’d like each person to choose two from the list to champion for the next week. I’m not including documentaries, short films or foreign language films that were not nominated in other Oscar categories. Eventually, there may be some films included that I’ve seen but not in such a long time that they deserve a revisit.

This Week’s Category: Academy Awards XXXI – 1961

  • A Majority of One
  • Babes in Toyland
  • Bachelor in Paradise
  • Back Street
  • Ballad of a Soldier
  • Claudelle Inglish
  • El Cid
  • Fanny
  • Flower Drum Song
  • General Della Rovere
  • Khovanshchina
  • Lover Come Back
  • One, Two, Three
  • One-Eyed Jacks
  • Paris Blues
  • Pocketful of Miracles
  • Splendor in the Grass
  • Summer and Smoke
  • The Absent Minded Professor
  • The Children’s Hour
  • The Guns of Navarone
  • The Mark
  • The Parent Trap
  • The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
  • Town without Pity
  • Two Women
  • Yojimbo

Comments

12 responses to “Feed the Queue #145”

  1. Mike Kelly Avatar
    Mike Kelly

    Gulp! Now I have to rank and recommend last again. I’ve consciously avoided looking at the other rankings and only at the recommendations so as to not repeat.

    Rankings
    1. Spartacus
    2. The Sundowners
    3. The Time Machine
    4. Hiroshima, Mon Amour
    5. Bells are Ringing

    Recommendations
    The Guns of Navarone
    Lover Come Back

    Reply
  2. Mike Furlong Avatar
    Mike Furlong

    Maybe I don’t understand where fair and unfair come into play, but a couple weeks ago both Mikes voted for The Young Lions to be #1 and Peter voted The Young Lions “dead last” and there was no mention about that instance being unfair. All I’m asking for is consistency.

    Reply
    1. Peter J Patrick Avatar
      Peter J Patrick

      I second that even if The Young Lions is not one of my favorite films.

      Actually I think that since there are only three of us making suggestions that Wesley should put all three of our #1 selections in his Netflix queue, but that may be asking too much. The queue is already backed up with previous recommendations of The Asphalt Jungle; Strangers on a Train; High Noon; Pickup on South Street; The Caine Mutiny; Bad Day at Black Rock and The Seven Samurai.

      Reply
      1. Wesley Lovell Avatar
        Wesley Lovell

        Yeah. That’s asking too much. I hadn’t noticed The Young Lions issue, but if there’s going to be a big deal made of it, I’ll scrap Anatomy of a Murder from the list.

        Reply
        1. Mike Furlong Avatar
          Mike Furlong

          Seriously, Wesley, watch whatever you want, this is just a compass for you to find worthy films and I’m happy to be part of the process that gets to recommend some of them to you. Add a second place finisher like Anatomy of a Murder once in awhile because you want to see it and enough people recommended it high enough to include. That is a good thing. But please don’t single me out because I don’t rank a film higher than you think I should, and please don’t accuse me of making a big deal out of this. I’m a fair guy. I think this is a situation that perhaps we all feel a bit more passionate about than we should. It’s not the movie I’m making a big deal out of, it was being singled out and hopefully you can see it from my point of view.

          Reply
  3. Mike Furlong Avatar
    Mike Furlong

    I can wholeheartedly agree that Anatomy of a Murder is a landmark in that regard, but not all landmarks make for good films. For years now, my Feed the Queue suggestions have always been based on recommending the best possible films, regardless of genre, country of origin or year of release. I can’t recommend something based on how tired somebody might be or how daunting of a task to read subtitles is for them. If this is such a concern, I don’t understand why said foreign films are being thrown into the mix.

    Reply
    1. Wesley Lovell Avatar
      Wesley Lovell

      I’m not saying anything against you, Mike. This was just a very extreme example of where the results just didn’t seem fair. Normally, you guys are all over the place or in total agreement. This time, your top choice wasn’t even the second choice of the other two individuals, but based on your rankings, it lost to the top vote-getter by one point. It was such a strange result with a unified front in one direction and a single outlier on the other. So, don’t think this has anything to do with this being a Foreign vs. English thing (I just watched Y Tu Mama Tambien a couple of weeks ago). I think what Peter was saying is that this is one of the reasons he casts his votes the way he does, but not the only reason.

      Reply
      1. Peter J Patrick Avatar
        Peter J Patrick

        I was being a bit tongue-in-cheek with the subtitles comment.

        I’m more focused on the film as it relates to Oscar. For example, I think Judy Holliday’s performance in Bells Are Ringing was her best on-screen performance, eons better than her Oscar winning performance in Born Yesterday, which is why I recommend it over Spartacus which is a better film overall.

        If this week’s selection were based on historical importance I would rank Hiroshima, Mon Amour number one, followed by Spartacus; The Sundowners; Bells Are Ringing and The Time Machine. If it were best special effects, The Tim Machine would be my choice hands down.

        Reply
  4. Peter J Patrick Avatar
    Peter J Patrick

    Rankings:
    1. The Sundowners – A
    2. Bells Are Ringing – A
    3. Spartacus (I would have thought every Kubrick fan has already see this) – A
    4. Hirsohima, Mon Amour – A
    5. The Time Machine – B+

    Recommendations:
    Fanny
    The Children’s Hour

    Reply
  5. Mike Furlong Avatar
    Mike Furlong

    I’m not sorry I voted for Anatomy of a Murder “dead last”, but I include the grade I give these movies and pull no favorites. We can’t all love the same films.

    1. Hiroshima, Mon Amour (A-)
    2. The Sundowners (B)
    3. Spartacus (B-)
    4. The Time Machine (C+)
    5. Bells Are Ringing (D)

    Recommendations:
    Yojimbo
    One, Two, Three

    Advanced warning: I give several of these movies D+ or worse, so chances are strong I will vote one of your recommendations dead last again.

    Reply
    1. Mike Kelly Avatar
      Mike Kelly

      Revisiting movies over time can be a strange phenomena for me. I’ve always liked Anatomy of a Murder, but two viewings ago (about 3 years) I was annoyed by the excessive bickering that seemed to overwhelm the courtroom proceedings. I last viewed it about a year ago for a 1959 Best Picture vote and not only did I enjoy the courtroom scenes more, but I picked it as best film of the year over Ben Hur, my previous top pick. Go figure! Stick by your guns, Mike. Though unusual to have a viewing disparity as extreme, it will happen to all of us. Ultimately, as far as Cinema Sight is concerned, we offer only a guide for Wes to pick the films he wishes to add to his queue.

      Reply
    2. Peter J Patrick Avatar
      Peter J Patrick

      I don’t generally make my recommendations here based on which film is the best artistically.

      I have a bit of a problem encouraging someone who wants to catch up on Oscars past to watch a foreign film what was in the time of its release obscure to most people including Oscar voters, no matter how good it is, over Oscar nominees for major awards they haven’t seen, especially if by the time they get to them it’s late on a Sunday and their eyes may be too tired to read subtitles.. Seven Samurai, Wild Strawberries and Hiroshima Mon Amour are certainly films everyone should see sooner or later but not necessarily for purposes of understanding what was in voters’ heads at the time.

      Anatomy of a Murder in addition to be being a well-made film was a cultural landmark in its day. It pushed the envelope, as did many of Otto Preminger’s films of the 1950s and 60s, for other filmmakers in hastening the end of the Production Code. Where else could you find Jimmy Stewart and Mrs. Bing Crosby talking about semen in a woman’s panties in 1959?

      Wild Strawberries would be a good film to watch just before Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams in which Sylvia Sidney dies of a heart attack while watching the film in a revival house in 1973.

      Reply

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